John Britton is a director, writer, performer, improviser and trainer. He is Artistic Director of DUENDE, an international collaboration of performers dedicated to ensemble principles. He is also the founder and director of The DUENDE School of Ensemble Physical Theatre. He has directed text, dance, physical theatre, opera, youth theatre, schools work, radio, live art, interdisciplinary performance and site-specific work, as well as writing for stage and the radio and performing in everything from experimental opera to physical theatre, solo improvisation to commercial pantomime. He also runs workshops and a large number of performance training residencies the last of which was in Uttarakhand. Excerpts from an interview.
What is Duende?
DUENDE is a company I set up in 2010. The aim was to establish a framework through which artistes with a shared training could collaborate. There are 14 Associate Artists connected to the company from around the world, including one from India: Manjari Kaul, based in Delhi. Lack of funding and the fact we are spread around the world means we do not get to make productions. However, whenever more than three DUENDE artistes are in a city at the same time, we create a live, improvised, public performance in collaboration with local artistes - a process we call ‘Collision’.
DUENDE is based on a shared belief in ensemble, physical expression, cross-artform innovation, inter-cultural respect and collaboration, and the exploring of alternative structures to the failing models of the mainstream.
What are the benefits of a collaboration?
Yes! Collaboration is central to my work. I think it is a peculiar kind of arrogance for an artiste to assume that her/his vision is so magnificent and complete that the role of others is only to bring that vision to life. We are enriched and changed by meetings with others.
When the interpersonal richness of the collaborative process is enhanced by diversity of ethnicity, culture, training, aesthetic, age, physical ability and the other elements that make all of us unique. It is not always easy, but it is always valuable.
What are the challenges of sustaining this kind of ensemble work?
There are always challenges. Money is short. Neo-liberal capitalism is not really a supportive environment for real creativity or the development of genuine community. Nationalism seeks to divide us. Performers - especially young performers - struggle to carve out time to grow, train and experiment (all essential ingredients for creativity and excellence).
Tell us about your process of training performers.
I have developed my own approach to training, which I call Self-With-Others. It places interpersonal communication at the heart of the work- all performance is a meeting, so all training must be a meeting too - though sometimes the meeting is with oneself.
SWO is a psycho-physical and improvisational approach to training that I use across the worlds of theatre, dance, circus, clowning and site-specific performance. We live in a culture where people think that ‘discipline’ and ‘rigour’ demand some kind of destructive negativity and dissatisfaction, a preoccupation with what the trainee did ‘wrong’. There is no ‘wrong’ in art, though some choices work better than others.
I am passionate about offering healthy and rigorous training. That’s why a few years ago I set up The DUENDE School of Ensemble Physical Theatre, a three-month professional training process. So far the school has operated out of Athens in Greece, but I am looking into the possibility of running the School in India in 2018. Ideally, we would find some sponsorship to make this possible, so that we can reduce the cost for Indian students. Another passion of mine is to make training available beyond the ranks of the financially fortunate.
Your experience in India
I find a great hunger for this work in India. I have been coming here for a few years and have loved developing ongoing relationships with a number of Indian artistes. I especially like running longer residencies where International and Indian artistes can collaborate.
A lot of contemporary dance practice borrows from your kind of work or vice versa. How do we separate the two or is it even desirable?
I am really not interested in putting labels on art forms. I do not really see any great difference between dance and theatre, or music, or visual art forms. I have always been more fascinated by the meeting points than by the points of division and difference. I am very glad that the disciplines and techniques of dance are coming to inform the physicality of ‘actors’. Equally I am delighted by the enriching of performance possibilities that comes when dance meets other languages of expression.
Are you aware of Indian theatre forms and is there anything in particular that you find interesting?
I am aware of various forms — people come to me from all sorts of training and performance backgrounds. However, I don’t engage too closely with any particular form. This is partly because my interest is in the things that performers share rather than the details of their difference, partly because I am a foreigner here (as I am in all the other countries I work in). I love meeting forms and trainings from India, Mexico, America, Greece — and I want to see how they can meet and inform each other.
But there is a difference between that and somehow claiming any ‘expertise’ in areas that are really not mine to claim.
(Kunal Ray teaches contemporary literature at Flame University, Pune and writes on art and culture)